File sharing over WiFi

[Guest thebaron]

Hi all,

I have just got wifi on my desktop set up and have configured my M1500 to connect to the internet using an ad-hoc connection with the PC (I am using XP pro).

I want to access shared folders from my PPC but can't seem to get it working at all.

I think it may be a problem with my desktop set up as I have seen in other posts that people have this working.

I am trying to access the folders using the file explorer but can't acces my computer using the IP or computer name. ("the network path was not found - or you do not have permission to access the network")

Have tried disabling all firewalls but didn't solve the problem.

Should i be able to see my PPC from network connections on XP anywhere?

I have tried to change settings from control panel to see if anything is not set up correctly on my desktop but I'm not exactly a pro at this sort of thing.

Any help is very much appreciated.

[Guest thebaron]

No ideas?

I can access the shares using my router and a laptop so i assume it's the ppc config not xp. I can see my computer using resco file explorer but get the same error message: you do not have permission to access the network or network is unavailable.

Anyone who has this working i'd really appreciate some help.

[Guest fraser]

Try using vxUtil to ping the PC in question. First make sure you can route to it. Then do a port scan against port 137 IIRC, it should report open. If this passes, the networking is fine and it's the share itself that has issues.

It's possible that it's to do with SMB encrypted passwords. Originally SMB (windows file sharing protocol) used unencrypted passwords, but that changed with NT. I think the PPC browser cannot do encrypted passwords, this is definitely an issue if you want to connect to Linux SAMBA shares.

Also, are the shares on the same subnet? I have two subnets at home, wireless and wired and when the PPC is on the wireless it cannot talk to the wired network shares whatsoever. It's just not possible; I believe it's using broadcast messages and that's what's causing the problem.

[Guest thebaron]

Try using vxUtil to ping the PC in question. First make sure you can route to it. Then do a port scan against port 137 IIRC, it should report open. If this passes, the networking is fine and it's the share itself that has issues.

It's possible that it's to do with SMB encrypted passwords. Originally SMB (windows file sharing protocol) used unencrypted passwords, but that changed with NT. I think the PPC browser cannot do encrypted passwords, this is definitely an issue if you want to connect to Linux SAMBA shares.

Also, are the shares on the same subnet? I have two subnets at home, wireless and wired and when the PPC is on the wireless it cannot talk to the wired network shares whatsoever. It's just not possible; I believe it's using broadcast messages and that's what's causing the problem.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi fraser thanks for the help,

THe port 137 is not open (port 139 is open though) so no prob with vxutil or the connection. How do i go about allowing this? I have tried allowing in windows firewall and am using sygate personal and have added the mac address with an allow all advanced rule. Neither this nor allowing all traffic seems to open the port.

BTW you have gone over my head with the SMB and whether a share is on a particular network? I thought sharing the file would be on all adapters - as i said I am no pro.

Any further help is much appreciated,

Sam

[Guest fraser]

If you only have one network, don't worry about that. You can subnet networks into segments for efficency, e.g. acounting dept. are on a different one from engineering etc.

SMB is the name of the system that windows shares use. SaMBa is the Linux "port" of it.

Before opening up your software firewall, we need to be careful. How do you have your internet setup? Do you have an external router with WiFi and the PC and PDA hang off of there? Or have you got Windows Connection Sharing, with the internet pluged straight into the PC? Both require the port to be open, however in the latter case you MUST make sure that it's only open on the private network card (wireless) and not the public one (internet). If you are behind a router/firewall, it's not that important.

One last thing, perhaps port 137 is not the problem here. You can connect to 139, which is also a part of SMB (as is 138). On the desktop I'm typing this, 137 is closed as well and file sharing works. On the desktop, fire up a cmd.exe prompt and type "telnet localhost 137". If it says connection refused, this is defo not the problem as your laptop works.

PS in the end I gave up on the share stuff myself, because of the subnetting nonsense. However, I found this recently:

  Can I connect to Mac OS or Linux/Unix with PocketLAN, how?

Yes, you need to install Samba(freeware) for windows file sharing and change its settings.

The file [smb.conf]which is located in the directory /etc

    1.    cd /etc

    2.    Open smb.conf (superuser password may request)

    3.    Find the first section of the smb.conf file, settings labeled [global]

    4.    Make or edit the encrypt password settings to allow unencrypted passwords, i.e. "encrypt passwords = no"

    5.    Since this allows passwords to be sent in the clear text, make sure the appropriate setting in PocketLAN matches. On PocketLAN dialog, click the "*" button near the "Connect" button and check the box "Accept Clear Text Password". Then click "Yes" to reset the device.

    6.    Add or edit a line, also in [global] settings, to say "security = share"

    7.    Reboot your computer

Which I do intend to try at somepoint, I've just not gotten around to it.

One last thing; can you access shares on the laptop? That's the only thing I ever managed to get working; PPC to WinXP.SP2 Laptop, both on the same wireless network.

[Guest thebaron]

Did you attempt to get this working again?

I tried to download samba and see what was going on with that but couldn't work out what i should be doing will the numerous files i downloaded about it.

If you have had any luck it would be great to hear how you managed to progress.

Sam

[Guest fraser]

Yes and no. I tried the changes and it completely broke my home network. Instead of all the shares using the same user/pass on all boxes, I got each share with it's own permissions needing managed. Backed it out asap, no use to me, way too many shares to update. Plus, turning off encrypted passwords is no a good idea generally.

I'm just accepting that it's not possible to connect to Linux or a different subnet on these devices.

Anyone know a good PPC SCP or SFTP program? ;)

[Guest vimafeje]

Hi to all!

With Resco Explorer, trough the function "Map network drive", i can access all drive in my network.

I have a qtek 9090.